Tuesday 30 June 2009 06.23 EDT
First published on Tuesday 30 June 2009 06.23 EDT

A partial recount of Iran's disputed election resulted in a small increase in the vote for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, state media announced today, dashing hopes of a rerun.

The powerful Guardian Council, which oversaw a random recount on 10% of the ballots, declared a "slight" increase in Ahmadinejad's vote in some cities, said the semi-official Fars news agency.

The verdict is expected to widen divisions in Iran between supporters of the regime and supporters of the opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi who are convinced Ahmadinejad stole the election.

The size of the increase was not specified but the council said it was not enough to alter the overall official result which gave Ahmadinejad 62% of the vote.

The council said Ahmadinejad's vote increased in the south-eastern province of Kerman – Iran's second largest province – and singled out the city of Jiroft as an example.

It recounted 17 of the city's 170 ballot boxes and declared that Ahmadinejad's tally increased by 12 votes. Mousavi's vote went down five in the city.

The changes from the recount were declared "too small" to change the outcome of the election. Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, who heads the Guardian Council, said a "meticulous and comprehensive examination" revealed only "slight irregularities that are common to any election and needless of attention," according to the state TV channel IRIB.

Mousavi and the other defeated candidates, Mahdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezaei, boycotted the recount by refusing to send representatives as the council had requested.

Fars also reported that recounts in cities of Qom, Gorgan and Sari resulted in no changes to the original results.

Mousavi, who has called for a rerun of the election, has yet to comment on the recount.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, questioned the limited nature of the recount. "They [the regime] have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process. And I don't think that's going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots," she said.

Asked if the USwould recognise Ahmadinejad as Iran's legitimate president, Clinton said: "We're going to take this a day at a time."